Your hypothesis and procedure for science fair are due this Thursday. See “What’s New” under the science fair tab for more detail.

This Week:

What we will do: This week is all about the pendulum inquiry. Monday we are finishing experiments and making graphs. Tuesday we are writing our anlayses for the experiment. Wednesday and Thursday we are typing our work. This assignment is worth 33% of your semester grade.

If you are gone for a day: You should not have much trouble catching up with your teammates. Every student needs to do their own graph and their own analysis. Those are critical.

If you are gone for multiple days: One version of the assignment is can be downloaded below. There are specific directions for you to follow. You can e-mail Mr. Jamsa for help if you are trying to complete this on your own. Turn in what you have to Mr. Jamsa when you return.

Science Fair Hufflepuff hypothesis and procedure is due next Thursday!

Friday, December 9th

Objective: With my team we will collect data from the pendulum expeirment including writing down experimental problems.

What we did in class today: Most groups did approximately 9 trials of the pendulum experiment and wrote the results in their science notebooks.

If you missed class today: You will have to collect data when you come to class on Monday.

Thursday, December 8th

Objective: With my team, we will have our pendulum hypothesis approved and complete a good rough draft of our procedure including a materials list, digrams, at least ten steps, and a data table.

What we did in class today: With our table teams, we worked on the pendulum inquiry focusing on what is written above.

If you missed class today: You will need to catch up your notes and your thinking when you return. This lab is what we shall be doing until Break, and it is worth 33% of the SEMESTER grade. This is a final exam of sorts which demonstrates whether you understand the scientific method or not and that is a big focus for us obviously this year.

Wednesday, December 7th

Today was the day we went to the Oregon Garden to do our service learning by removing invasive species.

Tuesday, December 6th

Objective: With my team, we will write a hypothesis for the pendulum experiment based on today’s research.

What we did in class today: We learned about mechanical energy for the research phase of the experiment. Based on that research, we wrote a hypothesis and had them checked out by Mr. Jamsa.

If you missed class today: When you return, copy your notes from your table team and have them help you understand where they are in the process. We will continue the experiment Thursday after the field trip tomorrow.

Monday, December 5th

Objective: With my team we will develop a scientific question for the pendulum inquiry and learn pendulum vocabulary.

What we did in class today: We talked about what we knew about pendulums, set up a practice pendulum, made a T-chart of variables both independent and dependent, and wrote scientific questions for the experiment we are doing this week.

If you missed today: You will have to copy the notebook of your team mates when you come tomorrow.

Objective: I will answer questions about energy and systems from Dr. Art’s Guide to Planet Earth.

What we did today: We answered questions from the text about the concept of “Energy Flows.”

If you missed today: You will need to come to Mr. Jamsa’s class during an AG to collect the questions and use the text book.

Tuesday, November 29th

What we did in class today: We did a check on how well the students understood the concept of systems and then 1/2 of the class did a word find while the Hufflepuffs set up their science fair notebooks.

If you missed today: See Mr. Jamsa if you had a T-form accepted. Otherwise, you don’t need to do anything else.

Monday, November 28th

Objective: Today I will create a graphic organizer answering the three system questions about my system of choosing.

What we did in class today: We did an activity demonstrating what a system is. We then defined it, wrote down some notes, and started a grpahic organizer demonstrating a system that the students chose.

If you missed today: Copy the notes from a classmate and ask them about it. This was important information that we will refer back to many times this year. Pay attention Tuesday morning when we go over the material from yesterday.